


5 Firsts, and the Last: The Growth of Tony and Peter’s Relationship, Until the End

by moreofareaderthanawriter



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Platonic Relationships, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:07:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24754477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moreofareaderthanawriter/pseuds/moreofareaderthanawriter
Summary: A story of firsts for Peter and Tony as they grew from acquaintances at arm’s length, to father and son. 5+1 style because I really love reading these.The first lab day.The first hug.The first night.The first fight.The first I love you.The last.All parts are in this one post. Hope you enjoy😊
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 80





	5 Firsts, and the Last: The Growth of Tony and Peter’s Relationship, Until the End

1: THE FIRST LAB DAY.

Tony was a genius. He understood a lot of things. He was smart, quick witted, but for the life of him he couldn’t get his head round that kid. Peter constantly surprised him. From his wise brain beyond his years, to his sheer bravery diving into situations out of his depth in nothing but a onesie (which Tony felt severe guilt for), to TURNING DOWN his offer to join the Avengers. He was constantly surprised and in awe of the kid, and much against his better judgement, he went with his gut and decided to maybe let the kid into his life a little anyway. 

A couple of weeks after the vulture incident, Tony went to Peter’s number in his phone. He’d never text the kid, and the kid wouldn’t have his contact info. Security thing, he told himself, he didn’t want the kid selling his number off. Not at all because he was scared he might really start to like the kid. But they were past that point of trust now surely, so screw it.

Fancy coming over to the compound Saturday to work on some suit upgrades I’ve had in mind? Figured its about time I showed you the lab. Happy will get you and bring you home  
-TS. Don’t sell my number. 

Tony pressed send before he could overthink, and the reply was almost instantaneous.

Oh my god, yes please!!!! This is so awesome, THANK YOU MR STARK. I WON’T SELL YOUR NUMBER  
-PP

Tony snorted at the way the kid had signed his initials despite the fact he clearly knew he was texting him. He found himself really looking forward to Saturday.

Saturday rolled round and at bang on 11am, Peter shuffled into the lab, shaking with either nerves or excitement, Tony couldn’t tell. Tony himself felt nervy. Bar the Germany trip, they’d never spent more than a half hour together, and here they were ready to hang out all day. It was new and Tony wasn’t renowned for his love of kids. 

A few hours later, you would have never known there had been any worries. They’d settled into science conversation easily, and were soon laughing, barely working, and talking about anything under the sun. The day slipped by so fast. Time flies when you’re having fun.

Despite how easily he’s relaxed around Tony during the day, Peter seemed to tense as Happy came by at 8pm to pick him up. He seemed to regain a sense of shyness, and Tony realised he looked glum. They’d really had a great day. Peter and Happy bid him goodbye and left, and Tony felt an instant sense of emptiness that really unnerved him. Knowing the kid couldn’t be more than 10 minutes away, he pulled out his phone before he could think.

Same time next week Underoos?

…

You’re on Mr Stark!!!!!! 😊 😊 😊

And so, it began.

2: THE FIRST HUG.

Same time next week, soon became every Saturday. Then additionally Wednesdays after school. All in all, they saw a lot of each other. Whether it be those scheduled labs, or much less to Tony’s liking, the impromptu meetings where Peter would get hurt and need help cleaning up. His Aunt, whilst a nurse and being well aware of his extra-curricular activities, preferred not to know when Peter was getting nicked as it made her anxious, so Peter would go to Tony when he needed it. Or most common was Tony getting an alert from Karen that the spiderling could do with some assistance.

It was one of those days. Tony had been tinkering in the lab, at 1:03am on a Monday, when an alert sounded “Spiderman injury alert, boss. He seems to have dislocated his shoulder and sprained his wrist. He is also atop of a 60-floor high rise in central Queens and has run out of web fluid. He can’t climb down with his injuries, though he is informing me he is going to try soon once he, as he put it, shoves his shoulder back in. He is not aware I’m contacting you.”

Tony jumped up instantly, calling a suit and taking off towards Queens. Smart kid could be so stupid. He angrily grabbed some web fluid and took off. Luckily he’d been at the tower this week, so it took him only 10 minutes to fly over there full power. 

The sight he arrived to would’ve been amusing if he wasn’t so concerned. Peter was crouched on the roof, making strangled noises like a cat as he leant against a chimney stack, shoulder first, seemingly hoping the pressure would pop his shoulder back into place. He spun around at the sound of the Iron Man suit clanking onto the roof however, grinning sheepishly “Oh hey Mr Stark”

Tony rolled his eyes “Hello to you too, idiot. You can’t just pop your shoulder back in by yourself like that. Lemme show you the proper way to reconfigure joints. Just saying that aloud, am I a terrible influence or giving you top class doctor advice for the future. Definitely the latter right kid?”

Peter only smiled at him gratefully, and at that moment Tony saw the tears threatening to fall. It must really hurt. Tony’s expression softened “This is gonna hurt Pete but you’re a tough cookie. Come here”. 

After the agony but afterwards relief of successfully popping Peter’s shoulder back into place, he slumped against the chimney before thankfully taking the web fluid that Tony had brought and refilling his wrist shooters. It was then, as Peter gingerly rolled his wrist and winced, that Tony remembered the sprained wrist. “Nah-ah. You’re not webbing home with that wrist, you need to rest it a couple days then you’ll be right as rain with your healing. OFF WE GO”

Peter could only yelp as Tony scooped him up into his arms and shot into the air, quickly flying back to Peter’s apartment and landing on the fire escape. Before Peter could crawl back through the window, Tony sat him on the metal stair and crouched down in front of the kid, hands on his shoulders. “Today’s lessons learned: 1. Don’t run out of web fluid. Very stupid. 2. How to pop a dislocated shoulder back in. Very bad, but useful. 3. CALL TONY IF YOU NEED HELP. I’ll always come get you, bud.”

Whether it was Peters tired but gratefully smiling face, the shivering that had taken over him or Tony’s scarily growing ‘concern’ for the kid, he didn’t know. He didn’t know why at that moment he leant forward and wrapped his arms round Peters slim frame, enveloping him in a hug. He did know that Peter froze, but then melted into the embrace, arms going round Tony’s neck tightly. 

After a moment, Tony pulled away, and didn’t know what to say. Because this was definitely new. But not bad. Not weird. Did Peter think it was weird? Oh god. 

Peter interrupted his spiralling thoughts with a smirk “So, we’re there now?”

Tony laughed out loud, before grabbing the kid in his embrace once again.

3\. THE FIRST NIGHT.

After that night on the roof, physical affection was no longer feared. In fact, Peter seemed to thrive off of it. Lab days often ended with movies on the couch, during which Peter would slowly migrate from having his legs settled over Tony’s lap to his head leaning against his shoulder, and instinctively Tony would wrap his arm around him. It felt natural, and right. All was right with the world when Peter was by his side. 

So they were close. But a test of how close came one Saturday night after working in the lab all day. They were watching Star Wars for the millionth time, when Tony heard what sounded suspiciously like a snore. And low and behold in that moment, an obliviously sleeping spider’s head slipped from his shoulder to his lap. Peter had full on fallen asleep on him. Yeah, this was new.

Tony felt guilt at the thought of waking the kid up to send him on a 2-hour car ride back from the compound to Queens. It was already 10pm as well. So what if…

Hey May. Kids fallen asleep on me. I could just keep him here and save Happy the drive out to Queens? I’ve embarrassingly got a room all set up anyway from when I asked him to be an Avenger. Can bring him back in the morning? I’ll do it myself.  
-Tony.

He felt nervous as he awaited the reply. Was he overstepping a boundary here? 

Yeah that’s fine. Just make sure he eats enough! Thanks Tony, May xx

Seemingly not overstepping anything. Tony couldn’t help but grin. It was no secret to himself how fond he had grown of Peter. Having him stay was a welcomed thought. He absentmindedly started running his fingers through Peters hair. When the movie ended, he gently shook the kid awake. “Hey bud. Guess what?”

Peter only yawned in response but opened one eye to stare up at Tony, seemingly free of embarrassment that he’d fallen asleep in his lap. They really had come far. Tony continued “Sleepover time!! You’re staying, so you can finally see your room!”

This information perked Peter right up. A grin immediately formed, and he jumped up before starting to ramble excitedly. Tony just laughed, leading the way to the Avengers quarters. None of whom were actually here. Taken a vacation to Australia Tony said. He didn’t tell Peter he only hadn’t gone because he’d miss him too much.

A half hour later, Peter had got over the excitement of his room and the sheer size and decoration of it, the tiredness seemed to sweep over him again. He flopped down into his bed, wearing one of Tony’s old MIT sweatshirts and some pyjama pants. When Tony slowly moved toward the door, Peter spoke up, half asleep by the sounds of his voice “Wait. Your room is way far from here. Can you stay until I fall asleep?”

Tony froze by the door. Yeah, this was new. But how could he say no. He didn’t want to either.

So he slowly made his way back to Peter, carefully getting onto the bed beside him and lying down, raising his eyebrows at the kid in an invitation. Peter immediately and happily leaned his head on Tony’s chest and threw his arm over his waist. Tony knew he’d be able to hear his heart pounding, but he didn’t care. He was just so, so content. So, like Peter curled around him, he lay back, relaxed and closed his eyes. Just resting my eyes until he’s asleep, Tony thought.

They slept there til the sun crept in the next morning.

4\. THE FIRST FIGHT.

Peter stayed over a lot after that, Most Saturdays, and sometimes on a Wednesday and Happy would take him to school the next day. It was a routine they slipped into so easily. In fact, Tony moved back to the tower permanently, leaving the Avengers in the compound, because he wanted to be in the city he said. 

As him and Peter decorated the room opposite his in the tower, with spider webs all over, he looked at the kid, paint splattered all over himself, a grin that lit up the world on his face. He totally moved here for the city, Yeah. 

Tony being in the city meant that they did see a lot more of each other. What a coincidental perk! Peter would swing by all the time, to eat, to work, to just hang out. They were practically attached at the hip, in all honesty. 

With Peter spending a lot more time there, May took more shifts at the hospital and in turn started to insist that given Tony was watching him a lot, he had to keep him grounded with her rules. Like no patrolling past midnight on school nights, which was a new one after Peter had had far too many 3am scuffles and therefore no sleep, and exhaustion in school. Peter reluctantly agreed to this.

One week after this May was taking a training course in Boston, so for the week Peter stayed at the tower. This week, Peter made the mistake of thinking his curfew didn’t apply at Tony’s. When Peter got in at 12:03 on the Monday, Tony let it slide. When it was 12:15 on Tuesday, he swallowed down the relief followed by anger as Peter swung into the living room, and he let it slide.

1:46am on Wednesday, Peter Parker shimmied through the window, pulling his mask off and wandering straight to the fridge to get a snack. He didn’t notice Tony sat in an armchair, arms folded, expression glinting with anger. The only reason Tony didn’t shout straight away was because he’d been watching him like a hawk through the baby monitor protocol for the last 2 hours, so he knew he wasn’t hurt. Just disobedient. And that wasn’t ok.

Tony cleared his throat and Peter spun round “So, what kind of time do you call this?” he said quietly, stonily. 

Peters eyes widened at the tone “Geez, Mr Stark, chill. Was just a busy one? I’ll get plenty of sleep, its fine”.

Tony stood up, shocked that Peter didn’t seem apologetic “Not the point. The point is your Aunt set these rules, which you agreed to, so when you’re under my roof and my responsibility that doesn’t change, because I respect her. Where’s your respect for me? No patrolling for the rest of the week.”

Peters jaw dropped “Seriously?! Since when are you so bothered about rules, wow. Didn’t know you’d become such a stresshead. I’m going to bed, leave me alone. Won’t do it again. Whatever”

Tony’s shoulders dropped as he stared after Peter as he stalked away. He knew it had been a tough patrol night. He knew Peter found it hard to leave anyone in trouble, and he’d have been the same. His voice cracked as he spoke once more, the anger leaving him at the thought of Peter being angry with him “I just don’t want your Aunt to stop letting you come here. And of course I worry about you, I care about you Underoos”. 

Peter was clearly tired, cranky and grumpy as he said, “You’re not my Dad” and slammed his bedroom door. Tony had never known words in a long time, to hurt like they did. He made his way to bed and fell into a fitful sleep.

The next morning however, he awoke to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. He looked at the clock, 8:06am. Peter would’ve left for school by now. He got out of bed and made his way to the kitchen.

There he found a mega cup of coffee, still hot. A plate of honestly rather poor looking pancakes, hastily decorated with cream that said “I’M SORRY! 😊”. Next to the plate of food was the Spider Suit, with a note attached “Punishment Accepted.”

Tony laughed out loud. That kid. The pancakes were gross. He ate them anyway.

5\. THE FIRST I LOVE YOU.

The setting wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t a life-threatening injury and a sudden need to declare how he felt, how he had felt for a long time, despite how much he tried to deny it to himself. it wasn’t a last words kind of situation. It wasn’t anything like that. Not at all.

It was a Friday morning in Spring Break. It was a last-minute decision to take the car, road trip to somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and ride bikes around the countryside. Because why not.

They’d had a great, normal day. They were perched on top of a hill, bikes leaning against a tree. They had eaten sandwiches, and were staring out across the beauty of upstate, untouched New York. Peter was rambling about something or other that had happened at school the week before, laughter taking over him as he tried to tell a supposedly very funny story. His cheeks were pink, his eyes shining in the sun, his smile wide as he looked out over the trees below, his brown curls waving in the wind.

Looking at Peter in the moment, the kid who had gone from being a nuisance who wouldn’t listen when he was getting in over his head, to being someone Tony actively wanted to spend time with, to being someone he couldn’t live without, Tony knew how he felt. 

“I love you kid”.

Shit. Did he just say that? Out loud? From the way Peter had abruptly stopped talking, and was staring at him wide eyes, yes, he had. He really had. Oh SHIT. Tony opened his mouth but nothing came out. He was gaping like a goldfish. Then Peter did the best thing. 

He smiled, casually reaching out and patting Tony’s cheek, grinning, eyes shining. “I love you too, sappy. In case you didn’t know that already, thought I was pretty obvious. Anyway old man, as I was saying”

As Peter continued on his story, but with a new glow of happiness surrounding him, Tony could only smile. And smile and smile and smile.

He loved that kid like he was his own. What would he ever do without him?

+1.

Tony wished he’d known on that random Saturday, when he was in the lab with Peter, firing back and forth ideas for the next Spider Suit, so normal, so happy. He wished he’d known that it would be the last lab day. He would have let the kid have a coffee for once as a treat.

Tony wished he’d known that Sunday morning, before Peter went to swing home from the tower, that when he’d hugged the kid goodbye, breathing in the scent of his honey shampoo, it was the last hug. He would’ve held him tighter.

Tony wished he’d known the night before that, as he fell asleep ‘resting his eyes’ in Peters bed, Peter attached to his side, that it had been the last night. He would’ve stopped pretending he didn’t want to be there and would’ve let himself savour it.

Tony wished he’d known when they had a petty argument about Peter damaging his web shooters, resulting in Peter slamming the door of the lab as he walked out. He wished he’d known it was the last fight. He would’ve savoured that fire that came with being frustrated at your kid getting into trouble, worrying about him, like a father. 

He would do anything to have a lab day again, a hug again, a night together again, a fight again, He would do anything. 

Because Tony knew. He knew as Peter shook with fear on the ground of Titan, Tony bent over him, holding his arms helplessly. Tony knew as Peter started to fade to ash. Tony knew then, as his resolve broke, as he desperately told Peter “I love you. I love you so much”. 

Tony knew that right then, that moment, that was the last.


End file.
